Montreal school principal clams up on ‘table manner’ incident

The principal of Roxboro School in Montreal, Canada has refused to talk to Philippine Embassy officials regarding the humiliation suffered by a seven-year-old Filipino student for his table manners despite the embassy’s repeated requests to discuss the incident with school authorities, Ambassador to Canada Jose Brillantes said yesterday.

Brillantes said in an interview with Vice President Noli de Castro in his weekly radio program Para Sa Iyo… Bayan that Roxboro principal Normand Bergeron never returned his calls.

"I have been calling the school principal but he did not return my calls. The Canadians have been sending text messages to me and apologizing in his name," Brillantes said.

Brillantes said the Roxboro School officials "should air their side. They are being criticized heavily because they did not put value or give respect to the complaints of the student’s parents."

He said the school’s authorities have also been avoiding the local media in Canada when asked for interviews or comments regarding the reprimanding and punishment of Filipino-Canadian Luc Cagadoc for eating Filipino-style, with spoon and fork, during a lunch program, instead of using just a fork the way Canadians do.

"We are fully supporting the action taken by the parents. We are supporting them all the way," Brillantes said. "The issue here is what happened and the impact (of the incident) on Philippine culture, which should be rectified."

Meanwhile, an official of the Federation of Philippine-Canada Trade and Commerce (FPCTC) said the lunch program monitor and principal of Roxboro School should apologize for reprimanding and punishing Cagadoc.

"We have to do something so it will not happen again. The lunch program monitor and the principal should apologize," Grace Yit of the FPCTC said.

Yit said most of the members of the Canadian media are apologetic over Cagadoc’s reprimand and punishment.

While she said Cagadoc’s experience is an isolated case, Yit added that the FPCTC fully supports the action taken by Cagadoc’s parents, the Filipino community and the Center for Research Action on Race Relations (CRARR).

Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines Peter Sutherland said Thursday that the incident is already being addressed and is not an irritant to bilateral relations between the two countries.

Sutherland said he was in Canada from April 23 to May 1 and talked to Filipino-Canadian associations in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Winnipeg but it was not brought up by any of the association during the meeting.

The envoy said he was already in the Philippines when he learned about the incident, which he referred to as "atypical" and "isolated."

Sutherland added that the Filipino-Canadian community is contributing greatly to the success of the Canadian multi-culturalism.

The Philippine Embassy fully supports the actions being taken by the Filipino community in Montreal, Quebec, who were outraged over Cagadoc’s ill-treatment.

Brillantes said the embassy considers the incident an "affront" to Filipino culture.